A look back on events in history on July 9 with Mike Badham

1191: Queen Berengaria married Richard the Lionheart. She never came to England, and he never spent long here either, because he was always too busy with the crusades. The marriage was mainly political - he was as queer as a nine-bob note.

1787: A Doctor Elliot fired a pistol at a courting couple in a London park who he thought were an affront to decency. He missed, but got off an attempted murder charge when his lawyer claimed the guns were unloaded. Nobody could prove him wrong because the bullets were never found.

1872: The doughnut cutter was patented by John P. Blondel. Some say he was a sailor who wanted a snack to pop over the spokes on the ship's wheel.

1877: The first Wimbledon lawn tennis championship was held. 1901: Barbara Cartland was born. At 30, she started to write romantic novels and still does several a year, dictating them to secretaries.

1916: Former premier Ted Heath was born. Aside from politics, he sails, plays the organ and conducts. After he conducted one orchestra, the first violin told a reporter: "He stood there waving his baton and we just played as normal."

1938: With war looming, 35 million gas masks were issued to British civilians. Toddlers had jokey "Mickey Mouse" styles and babies had "space helmets".

1960: Going over Niagara Falls in a barrel is usually fatal. But Roger Woodward, 7, survived a trip over without a barrel after he fell in the river.

1970: A seven-floor office block was completed in Hamburg. It took just under 66 hours to build.

1978: Animal Libbers besiged a battery farm and accused the owners - a local convent - of cruelty. The top nun denied this: "Our chickens are happy. They sit in their cages and sing all day."

1984: Lightning struck York Minster and started a serious fire.

1991: The International Olympic Committee lifted its boycott on South Africa.

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.